Monte Carlo/Monaco

Today, we had no organized tour planned. One of the other couples that we are traveling with set off with us for a “come what may” day of exploring this fascinating city. We’ve all seen Monte Carlo listed as the place for the “rich and famous”, and we were not disappointed as we entered the harbor.

The yachts here are unbelievable! We spent about an hour watching a crew prepare a yacht to set sail - the boat was probably 125 feet long, and we counted at least 10 crew members who busied themselves with pulling up jet skis and motorized skiffs and putting them on the deck. They even had a treadmill on the deck that they had to secure! This was just one of hundreds of large pleasure boats.

We set off on a 15 minute walk up the hill to where the Palace of Monaco is located. This is one clean city - everything is well maintained. We arrived at the Palace in time to see the changing of the guard. Another tour group today got to see Prince Albert. We decided not to take the Palace tour so that we could continue on with the bus loop that would take us up to the top of the hill overlooking the city. After coming back down, we were dropped off in the area of the famous Monte Carlo Casino. They have Secret Service looking guys guard the doors, metering who can go in. There is a dress code, and we knew that we wouldn’t pass (casual traveler was the order of the day for us). The cars in front were nothing like the kamikazi style small cars we saw in Italy. Here, there were Rolls Royces, Maseratis, Mercedes, and BMW’s. Not a spec of dirt. Everyone here looks very well heeled.

Our last leg of the trip was a short open air water taxi over to the end of the pier where the ship was docked. This gave us an up close and personal look at the yachts. Where does all of this money come from? We wish we knew our flags better, as we had to guess where they were from.

Tonight, we sailed out of the harbor around 8:00 PM, with a beautiful lightning storm taking place over the mountain behind the city.